PUBLIC PROTECTION

Evening Star, Issue 24329, 19 October 1942, Page 2

PUBLIC PROTECTION

“ QUACK ” REMEDY CONTROL

A MEASURE 10HC OVERDUE "

Suspicion attaches to nothing more readily than to irregular medical traffic. Nevertheless, tried patent medicines can anticipate no adverse effect from the recent Medical Advertisements Bill. Fraud and deception, on the other hand, will be exposed. Chemists welcome the passing of the legislation. - “ It is a measure long overdue,” said one to the ‘ Star.’ . There can be no doubt the legislation is a hopeful portent for the removal of a growing evil. Hundreds of specifies for every known ill are on the market. Among them are those, it is alleged, where, by blatant deception and false statements, the public have been hoaxed. With tentacles everywhere the nefarious traffic in worthless nostrums has spread, impressing with tragic effect its credulous victims—until realisation. By then fortunes have been amassed by fraudulent makers. The new law can have little dread for those with genuine goods. Where, through the years, these have enjoyed a remunerative sale, this is but a just return from an appreciative public. Faith of people in the specific has been handed on. It can be likened to that of a patient for his doctor’s prescription. Thus, with passing time, some oldworld remedies have remained secure in a reputation untarnished by pretence. Fundamental also have been facts supplied by the analyst. On the basis of these plus a knowledge of the cure has come to be stamped the undeniable honesty of the product. Claims established are permitted publicity. False advertisements are banned. It has been said the romance of the advertisement finds no support in the prose of the analyst; but it is a fact with the Press of the Dominion that the complete exclusion of transparently false quack advertisements from its columns has ever been an inflexible rule. The ethical code practised by the Press has been honourable—a resolute determination to maintain a high standard of honest publicity.